Brennan: Like many parents, Obama worried about concussions

May 29, 2014
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President Obama applauds Victoria Bellucci, a 2014 graduate of Huntingtown High School in Huntingtown, Md., as she introduces Obama to speak at the White House Healthy Kids & Safe Sports Concussion Summit on Thursday in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Bellucci played four years of women's varsity soccer where she was a team captain and an All-State selection. By the time her high school and club soccer careers ended in 2013, Bellucci had suffered five concussions. / Susan Walsh, AP

by Christine Brennan, USA TODAY Sports

by Christine Brennan, USA TODAY Sports

WASHINGTON â?? The growing and troublesome story of concussions in American sports took a significant turn Thursday morning when it left the football field and moved to the East Room of the White House.

There, in the venerable spot where Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy lay in state, and presidents have entertained and been inaugurated, President Obama brought the conversation about head injuries in sports, especially among the young, to a new and urgent level.

Speaking as much as the parent of two athletic daughters as he was as president, Obama sent a clear message: It's time to treat concussions as the serious, wide-ranging, male and female health issue they have become.

"Concussions are not just a football issue," Obama said to more than 200 sports leaders, athletes and parents at the first White House Healthy Kids & Safe Sports Concussion Summit. "They don't just affect grown men who choose to accept some risk to play a game that they love and that they excel at. Every season, you've got boys and girls who are getting concussions in lacrosse and soccer and wrestling and ice hockey, as well as football.

"And, in fact, the Center for Disease Control reports that in the most recent (annual) data that's available to us, young people made nearly 250,000 emergency room visits with brain injuries from sports and recreation â?? 250,000. That number obviously doesn't include kids who see their family doctor or, as is typical, don't seek any medical help."

Washington, we have a problem out there on the playing fields of America.

To illustrate the point, the White House didn't choose an NFL star to introduce Obama. It asked Tori Bellucci, a graduating high school senior, to do the honors. Bellucci was a standout soccer player at Huntingtown High School near Washington, D.C., until she gave up the game and turned down a college scholarship at Towson after suffering her fifth concussion.

Bellucci is not alone. According to High School RIO (reporting information online), an injury surveillance system out of Colorado, as quoted by The Washington Post, only football and boys' hockey players report concussions at a higher rate than girls' soccer players. Since 2008, high school girls' soccer players have reported an average of 14 concussions per 10,000 games played, nearly twice the average for boys' soccer (7.30). Football reports 27 concussions per 10,000 games and boys' hockey, 18.

The irony, of course, is that we want children to play sports, with Obama noting First Lady Michelle Obama's strong push to combat obesity.

"The First Lady thinks everybody needs to move," he said, drawing laughter. "And obviously there's a huge public health interest in making sure that people are participating in sports. But sports is also just fundamental to who we are as Americans and our culture. We're competitive. We're driven. And sports teach us about teamwork and hard work and what it takes to succeed not just on the field but in life."

So football isn't going away anytime soon â?? nor is soccer, or any other sport, for that matter. To that end, several multi-million-dollar concussion initiatives were announced at the White House by the NCAA, the Department of Defense and the NFL, among others.

The money is a drop in the bucket to the billions big-time sports produce in this country and around the world. But it is a start.

This is a scary time for the kids who play sports, and their parents â?? and even for the people who run the massive business of sports. One wonders what the sports world will look like 50 years from now. Will football still exist, and what will it look like if it no longer produces the crunching hits that make the highlight reels today? Or will all moms and dads have steered their kids to other sports? But it's not like everyone can just run to soccer, with its serious concussion problems, especially for girls and women.

With the NFL solidly out front as the most popular spectator sport in America, and on the eve of the men's World Cup soccer tournament, which will attract hundreds of millions across the globe, the East Room sat at the crossroads of the power of sports, and its perils.

"We've got to have every parent and coach and teacher recognize the signs of concussions," Obama said. "And we need more athletes to understand how important it is to do what we can to prevent injuries and to admit them when they do happen.

"We have to change a culture that says you suck it up. Identifying a concussion and being able to self-diagnose that this is something that I need to take care of doesn't make you weak. It means you're strong."